


Baby, come on

by Dracosalive (livesybaby)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23786749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livesybaby/pseuds/Dracosalive
Summary: Draco rescues Hermione from certain death in the only way he knows how.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 9
Kudos: 87





	Baby, come on

**Author's Note:**

> I recommend listening to '+44 - Baby, come on' as the soundtrack for this fic, the lyrics heavily inspired the plot.

baby, come on.

-

It's a wonder she wasn't murdered, a miracle in fact. Draco sometimes wondered what would have happened if he hadn't found her that day, emaciated in the dungeons of the home where he was taught to be a man, where he was raised to serve or die.

He wasn't sure if it was the stupidity of the snatchers or her quick wit that had saved her until then, somehow everyone had overlooked the fact that she was Hermione Granger - how the fuck had she managed to be dragged down there, beaten and tortured without once revealing her name?

She was filthy and her hair was matted, her collarbone jutting from the neckline of the torn material she was passing off as a tshirt, but he'd still recognise her anywhere - knew those curious eyes, could feel her stare deep down into his soul.

"I'm going to get you out of here, Granger"

He's promising her things he's got no authority to provide, but he'll do it anyway.

Potter's dead, the Weasley's are on death row and wizarding Britain isn't the same world he was born into. He hadn't realised on that day that he wasn't just promising to get her out of the dungeon, he was getting her out of their world - her only chance at survival under the rule of Voldemort.

"Why are you helping me?" she murmurs as he carries her tiny body in his arms, apparating as soon as he's cleared the wards and finding themselves in a cheap muggle flat that the old Draco Malfoy wouldn't have been seen dead in.

"You deserve to live, Hermione" he says, and their expressions both flicker when her given name falls from his lips for the first time.

She bathes and dresses herself in the muggle clothing he's managed to acquire at such short notice, she thinks nothing of laying on the Queen sized bed and pressing her face into the pillow. Tomorrow they'll head to what's left of the order, he'll take her and she'll fight and the war will be won, because that's how all happy endings go.

But stories don't always have a happy ending, and Draco Malfoy isn't sure he deserved to be part of one anyway.

-

"Obliviate" 

-

The next morning when she wakes up she has no idea who, what or where she is. There's a handsome white-haired man watching over her and he's telling her that she's had an accident that affected her memory. He's a friend, she feels safe as he comforts her - he says his name is Draco and she has vague memories of studying constellations and she asks if he's named after the stars because he's been sent to watch over her. His stomach churns and something thaws in his heart at the innocence of her expression.

He tells her how they're friends who just moved into town, this is his flat and he's going to keep her safe. He tells her that she's Hermione Black, but she swears she hears him call her Granger sometimes - it must be a slip of the tongue.

She doesn't argue when he sits her in front of the bathroom mirror and cuts her wild locks into an easy to manage pixie cut, and she tries not to worry too much though she notices he goes missing sometimes when he thinks she's asleep.

-

He wonders if the Hermione he went to school with would ever forgive him for modifying her memories, changing her name and appearance, sending her off wandless to a muggle town - even though its all important for her survival. He's not sure he deserves her forgiveness anyway.

When his parents are killed for disloyalty, Draco starts spending less and less time in the wizarding world.

-

In the end its Neville Longbottom who saves them all. More than a year has passed since the chosen one fell and Draco feels a bitter twisting deep in his gut when he thinks about the girl back home - that's what it is now, home - in their shared flat, waiting for him to bring back takeaway from her favourite local Chinese place. This fraud of a life they lead, but he can't leave her alone - she wouldn't survive and neither would he.

"Draco, what were we like as kids?" she asks, it's not the first time she's questioned their shared past and it's not the first time he's bent the truth - but the memory charm won't reverse and he's bound by the statute of secrecy so the best he can do is make a decent life for her here, its the least she deserves.

"You were the brightest girl I ever knew" he answers truthfully "I wasn't worth the ground you walked on"

She slaps his arm lightly, dismissing his self deprecation because she's used to it now. He's not used to the way she comforts him though, how she denies all his faults and insists he's a good man.

He's not a good man, but he hopes that ignorance is bliss.

-

It's another year before the nightmares begin, they've passed the two year anniversary of Potters death and somehow Draco thought they'd been okay - navigating this new life together.

But then she wakes up screaming and clawing at her forearm during the night - the place where he's glamoured the vile slur he once called her. He knows what she's seen before she tearfully explains but he still strokes her hair and whispers that it was all a dream and its not real.

He hopes it's a fluke though deep down he knows something is happening to her memories, he tries to carry on as normal and she puts her fitful sleep down to the fact they watched a horror, or that she ate a cheese sandwich before bed, or a number of other things to swerve the idea that she was reliving the time her best friend's aunt tortured her in his childhood home.

-

She starts drinking and though he knows everyone has their vices he can't help but feel as though he's failed her. When she's drunk and he's carrying her to bed she murmurs things he wishes he could block out, he doesn't deserve to hear her whisper pretty things into his ear - hasn't done anything to earn the feel of her lips against his neck.

He thinks he's in love with her, thinks he fell for her a lot earlier than he'd care to admit.

He tries to ignore the fact that she most likely loves him too.

-

Her fragmented memories come out with tiny slips.

One day they're arguing over the proper way to make tea and he calls her a swot, she responds with a jibe about him looking like a ferret but he blocks out the rest of it with a buzzing in his ears and drops his favourite mug until it shatters on the floor.

Everytime the letter box rattles and the postman knocks the door she starts talking about owls and there's a part of him that's excited but the other part is terrified she's going to hate him one day.

When she slips up and calls him a snake he makes an excuse to go to the shop and doesn't return to the flat for another six hours.

-

She's drunk when he gets home, absolutely pissed - so wankered that she can't see straight and when he carries her to bed she's whispering over and over in his ear about how much he means to her.

His heart beats unnaturally.

He expects her to be hungover the next morning, she always was a lightweight - she's got a pensive expression when his bare feet pad across the kitchen floor and then he's cursing under his breath as he pulls bread from the toaster, grunting about the burns to his fingertips and she whispers from her seat at the tiny two-person table.

"You never did like doing things the muggle way" 


End file.
